Sylvester Stallone’s back in the ring, but this time with a court challenge accusing Warner Bros of committing fraud with its accounting for his 1993 film Demolition Man.
The actor’s Rogue Marble Productions filed the suit today Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here), claiming he was supposed to collect 15% of the gross after the film generated $125 million. But it says that he hadn’t received a profit-participation report from the studio until his lawyer asked about it on May 12, 2014.
The studio is said to have told him in late-January 2015 that the film had a $66.9 million deficit. When he questioned that, Warner Bros. sent a statement the following April that allegedly “did not contain any detail for the figures presented” along with a check for $2.8 million. The suit alleges that the amount shortchanged him.
“The motion picture studios are notoriously greedy,” says the complaint, which refers to Stallone as “one of the greatest American talents of the last and present century.” “This one involves outright and obviously intentional dishonesty perpetrated against an international iconic talent.”
The complaint seeks “a full accounting, an explanation of how this practice came to be, interest, damages, and an end to this practice for all talent who expect to be paid by WB for the fruits of their labor.”
Warner Bros. declined to comment.
Stallone is represented by attorney Neville Johnson of Johnson & Johnson.
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